Conny took the staircase down to the bottom of the place, the more steps he took as he descended, the darker it got and damp the air. It took him a great willpower to even move his feet.
*Haah*…*haah*…I hate this… why the hell did that sheep go to this place…I got goosebumps when I saw that headless statue… It's freaking scary.
Conny proceeds with his searching endeavor, now he can’t see anything at all. He thought that since it’s already night, it’s better to do this tomorrow, but he can’t return now, not unless he retrieves the sheep back, when he starts to lose hope in his searching endeavor, he finally heard a noise, but it was too loud and sounds like a desperation voice of the sheep.
-Baaa-baaaa-baaaa…
W-what was that?!…it doesn’t sound good…shit…I know that I shouldn’t come to this place, I’d rather be beaten to death by Jerrim than experiencing this.
Conny turns his body, he really wants to get the hell out of this place, but the thought of adding more debt to his family made his body refuse to leave.
I... I can’t be a burden to my family…and I need to become a cool brother for Silvie…please…if there is a god up there…please help me…and my family...
Conny drops to his knees and repeatedly bows his head, then he is doing a prostration on the stairs. He isn’t a religious person but his dad always told him, if there is a moment where you can’t do it anymore just pray to god and keep your heads up. After doing prostration thing Conny got up and took a deep breath, when he is calm enough, he continues to descend further down to the place until he reaches the bottom, then, the sound of the sheep finally becomes clearer to his ears, still he can’t see anything.
Is there anything I can use as a lighter?…hmm let’s just use this rock and this… branch?. Conny picked up two rocks and what seemed to be a thick branch, when suddenly he caught a whiff of a strong pungent scent, a nasty one that made him puke.
“*Bleurgh*… ah…*haah*…what kind of shit smells like that…I need to make a fire…hold on a second, why is this branch has a texture like this…it’s like a long jelly…” curious to the thing on his hand that has a shape of branch, but with jelly like texture. Conny sniffed the somewhat branch and it smells horrible, he immediately throws that somewhat branch. Then he heard a dripping sound, followed by a weak voice of the sheep.
-Baa…
Like some sort of signal, that weak voice of the sheep triggers something in this place. Conny hears the sound of stones moving again, this time opening up a massive hall. After that he heard the sound of a torch lit up.
“*Bleurgh*. *Haah*…*haah*…s-shit.”
Conny cursed when the torch fire gave him a vision. What he sees in front of him is a dead body of the sheep. Its head twitching and dripping with blood even though it's already got decapitated from its body, and the inside of its stomach burst open, its internal organs were scattered. It reminds Conny of his recent dream, which made him immediately puke again. Conny’s face drips with sweat and his face is incredibly pale now, his whole body starts trembling. He looks at the poor sheep body only to find a hole on its stomach, then he approaches it carefully.
“Grab this poor sheep and… and leave this place…yeah, and I need to leave this place,” Conny frantically grabs the sheep’s dead body, but he can’t lift it. Shocked, with his legs shaking uncontrollably, he stumbled back to the stone floor, then curling up like a ball. His hands holding his head, his breath becoming erratic. He kept reassuring himself that it was just a normal dead sheep ahead, and not his body from his dream or anything strange imagined in his head.
D-deep breath…it’s okay Conny… there is nothing here…just…just...w-what is that… while Conny tried to catch his breath again, he noticed some kind of small stone slab behind the sheep’s dead body, on that stone slab there is a head statue without its body, it was captivating enough, it made Conny focused on it. He gets up and approaches that small stone slab, now he is standing in front of that small stone slab, and he realizes something.
“Wait, could it be, it’s the head of the headless statue on the entrance, on the roots of the giant tree, that I saw?” Curiosity got the best of Conny, he examined it by getting closer to see it more clearly and he noticed that, on that head of the statue, there is an exquisite golden mask. It looks like the head statue wearing that golden mask, the golden mask shining brightly reflecting the torch’s fire, it made Conny forget his nervousness and fear he felt earlier.
Wow!!…it’s… shining...I wonder how much gold I’d get if I sold it, probably millions of golds… millions of golds…
Conny got dumbfounded when the thought of millions or even 271 trillion of gold struck him. It was no surprise, because with that absurd amount of money, he can free his family from debt. Buy many things he wants, give a present for his little sister, Silvie, and more importantly, his family won’t be labelled as slaves anymore, a normal happy family. Then he can assure his father, his mother, Silvie to enjoy life. Was it greed or a desire that clouded his mind? whatever it is, Conny can’t resist it anymore, he snatches the golden mask from the head of the statue, then he looks at it once more.
The more I look at it, I’m sure…this is it… I’d be rich and I don’t have to live as a slave and my family too…thank god, *sniff*. Thank you… *sniff*…
Conny drops to his knee and cried while covering his face with both hands that’s also holding the golden mask, the long-cherished dream of happy life will finally become true the moment he sells this mask, he is overjoyed and can’t wait to tell his family, but… something happened to him the moment he wants to take off the mask.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“W-why I can’t take off this mask…*heugh*…ah it’s impossible…it’s like sticking to my face as if it became my skin…oh no…no... no.”
Panicked, Conny tried every method to take the mask off but it was to no avail, he is now hyperventilating, his chest got up and down. His eyes look around only to find the sheep's dead body that is already decomposing. Conny's vision starts blurring, he hears loud murmurs even though there isn’t anyone here, the torch suddenly went out, he heard the sound of stone moving up above, entrapping him here. In the pitch-black darkness, he heard another sound that reverberated through the air, it sounded ominous and heavy.
You’re welcome.
Conny passed out in the bottom of the hall altar place without a single light on the center of Cursed Coastal Redwood forest, where there isn’t a single animal inhabiting it, and the place where heretic worshipped an evil god.
----------------------------------------
4 hours later…
It’s night time. A man with a long black coat, and a brown top hat standing in front of the headless statue, he had a rough face full of scars especially on his left side, he didn’t have a left eye, the wound on his left side of his face is to severe, he had to use half mask to cover it, his seamless white hair and bearded facial hair giving the vibe of gentleman, he held a unique silver long cane that looks like four little hands compiled into one on his right hand, he wore black gloves, his right eye is crimson red, he is one of the most important person in the church, one who oversee the cursed, the Watcher, Herlan Rewead.
“Sir…what is the problem this time?” One young man who wore a church white uniform hesitantly asked a question. It's been 4 hours since he followed Herlan, and they finally stopped at this statue which seems to be the center of this forest. Herlan turned his body, and looked at the young man's eyes, the sudden action of Herlan startled the poor young man.
“We…are too late…someone…has entered this Altar…” Herlan said with trembling lips.
-*Crack*.
A voice!! in this silent forest at night time, there is a voice, and it’s not from the young man nor Herlan since both of them stared at each other, both of them became silent and nervous. They didn’t dare to mutter a single word, then suddenly something surreal happened, the headless statue in front of them began… moving.
-*Crack*.
The sound of more roots snapping, the statue hands tearing all the giant tree roots like a twig even though it was an enormous size root trying to break free from it. After tearing the whole roots which entrapped it, then it stood still in front of Herlan. The headless statue does a prostration all of the sudden like a person worshipping something while the moonlight bathes the headless statue figure, it was an unusual and strange sight. Herlan instructs the young man to step back, then he begins to chant a prayer, while dropping to one knee and holding his silver cane on his right hand while his left hand touches the neck of that headless statue.
“O goddess, please help your devout one and banish this evil being.”
The four little hands grow bigger and pounce on the headless statue, trying to suppress its movement so it keeps on the ground doing prostration, the four hands get brighter and brighter, when suddenly Herlan senses something off. It was the moment he knew the giant tree in front of him was going to fall down, time seemed to slow down when Herlan looked at that gigantic tree that wanted to crush him. The young man's loud voice snapped Herlan out of it.
“SIR HERLAN DODGE!!!”
The young man who wore a church white uniform frantically screams. Startled by this sudden event, Herlan stopped his prayer and lunged to the side, barely escaping from the impact of the falling giant tree.
*BOOM*!!
The devastating sound reverberated through the forest, the seizure from the fall of that giant tree made debris and dirt fly. Thanks to that, a crack line appeared showing the bottom of the place, a hall altar.
“*Cough* *cough*… are you okay sir?”
“I’m fine…more importantly that headless statue got wrecked by this giant tree, and am I seeing things? this is the bottom of what seems to be a hall altar.”
Herlan said while brushing his dirty clothes with his hand, then he investigates the place through the crack, thanks to the moonlight he can see something from the surface. On the bottom of the altar hall, there is a body of a young man and the corpse of a sheep.
“Just what in the world is this… you…your name is Kevin right? Go and report this to the church!”
The young man who wore white church uniform, Kevin, nodded his head and went back hurriedly to the church. After Kevin has left, Herlan slip through the crack line and gracefully landed on the bottom by using the four little hands as his steeping ground, then he carefully checks the body of the young man, it’s a boy from age 18, he had a messy black hair, a thin body and his face looks incredibly pale, judging from his skin color which is tan, Herlan assumed that this young man is a slave.
“Did he get lost?... he was probably searching for this sheep… and stumbled upon this place…what an unlucky fellow.”
Herlan tried to wake up the unconscious young man by slapping the young man’s right cheek, and the young man jolted awake. The young man had a bewildered expression when he saw his surroundings. Noticing Herlan near him, the young man asked.
“H-huh?... where am i… why am I in this place…kind sir, can you tell me what happened here?”
“I’ll keep it short kid, you did a crime by trespassing in this forbidden area, and my name is Herlan Rewead, The Watcher.”
“A-ah…i-i see m-my name is Conny…sir… what will happen to me now?”
“First, you need to- “
-*BOOM*
A sudden booming voice silences both Herlan and Conny, Herlan was the first to react as his four little hands become bigger then levitating himself and Conny, when both of them reach the surface, they see a blazing fire in the distance. Conny knew that place— it was Jerrim’s farm and also his home. Conny stared for a minute in disbelief, his eyes widened in shock and he finally shouted while clenching his fist.
That direction…it’s from my home!!
“NO! DAD! MOM! SILVIE!” Conny began rushing to the direction of his house, leaving Herlan alone, Herlan’s face frowned when he saw the blazing fire. He thinks that all of this happened as if it were intentional, almost like there is a mastermind pulling the strings to control someone’s fate.
“I had a bad feeling about this…I need to observe more…” Herlan touched his silver cane and the four little hands soon became smaller and wrapped the silver cane, then a tiny red ball appeared on top of the silver cane. Herlan grabs the red ball and places it on his left blank eye space. Red hue envelops his body and Herlan begins floating.
“*Sigh*, I’m the Watcher after all.” And Herlan followed Conny’s trail in incognito, he will carefully observe whether Conny has that thing or not from the altar where heretic once worshipped an evil god, the cursed item. The Mask of Existence, an item that shouldn’t exist in this world.